Turning the Boat for Home: A life writing about nature

Description

Britain's most influential nature writers reflects on a lifetime of close observation and celebrates the positive force of the natural world 'One of our greatest nature writers' Guardian For over fifty years, Richard Mabey has been a pioneering voice in modern nature writing. This book collects pieces across his rich career, tracing his continually evolving ideas as much as the profound changes in our environment. From the rediscovery of food foraging in the 1970s, to reflections on the musicality of birdsong, these essays show Mabey's passionate belief that our planet is a commonwealth for all species, and that our reconnection with the living world is more vital than ever. 'Richard Mabey is among the best writers at work in Britain' Tim Dee 'Poised where nature meets culture, Mabey is knowledgeable, politically savvy and wry, and an excellent naturalist' New Statesman

Richard Mabey is the father of modern nature writing in the UK. Since 1972 he has written some forty influential books, including the prize-winning Nature Cure, Gilbert White- a Biography, and Flora Britannica. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He spent the first half of his life amongst the Chiltern beechwoods, and now lives in Norfolk in a house surrounded by ash trees.

Richard Mabey is among the best writers at work in Britain. I don't mean among the best nature writers, I mean the best writers, full stop. I would read anything he wrote, but if such a thing as nature writing exists and flourishes today it is thanks almost entirely to him. I have lived by his books for all of my life. Pretty much all of what nature means to me, I know thanks to his own lifelong clear-eyed but loving investigation of what it means to him. He has allowed us all to think about modern nature - our world - but also, crucially, to feel it too. I cannot imagine a truer green man. * Tim Dee * One figure, like no other, looms large in setting the ground for the contemporary form that has come to be called then New Nature Writing. Richard Mabey is an author whose work has consistently pioneered new ways of thinking about landscape, nature, place, culture and the range of interconnections that all of these share. Often this has meant reminding us of old ways of thinking about these things but he has always had a sharp eye for the new meanings our modern context provokes. * Jos Smith * One of our most influential writers on the natural world * Gardens Illustrated * A valuable contribution to a great cause -- John Jolliffe * Spectator * Poised where nature meets culture, he [Richard Mabey] is knowledgeable, politically savvy and wry, and an excellent naturalist -- Kathleen Jamie * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *